Design for Environment

It’s fair to say that most products in the market today are not designed with end of life in mind. Because of this, we have a planet full of consumer (and other) products that cost society money to recycle.

If a product is designed for reuse or recycling, the value of the raw materials recovered will more than likely exceed the cost of recycling. This is an important ‘tipping point’ for the whole concept of resource recovery.

Good product design, with end of life in mind, has the potential to impact all other elements of the supply chain in a positive way, and who better to advise designers and materials engineers than the guy at the ‘end of the pipe’? We turn the ‘pipe’ into a ‘loop’ with design features that maximise the value of the raw materials in a product, thereby encouraging the development of collection and processing infrastructure to return those raw materials back into the product cycle.

Design for Environment is a unique service offered by Close the Loop to manufacturers. We can assist in simplifying the degree of complexity of products to help reduce the cost of resource recovery. Close the Loop can help your organization analyse, review and capture core information on compatibility of plastic types, complexity of products and the ease with which resources can be recovered.

Some design features or elements that help make resource recovery an attractive proposition for the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) include:

Fewer raw materials.

Ease of parts recovery.

Ease of materials separation.

Use of highly recyclable metals and plastics.

Minimal contaminants like glues and labels.

Clever fixings and fasteners that are made from the same materials as the main housings.